Slice of Life 2013

I’m participating in the Slice of Life 2013, hosted by Stacey Shubitz and Ruth Ayres at Two Writing Teachers.

I am not what you might call a spontaneous person. I am often accused of being “in my head” a bit too often, and have a difficult time extricating myself from the past or the future, whichever state happens to be the most threatening to me at the moment.

That’s one of the many reasons why I love Rosie, my six-month-old golden retriever.

With Rosie, I can be present, engaged, in the moment, in ways I haven’t been in the past. When I am with her, I can’t help but be in the moment watching her play with her friends at the dog park, learning new skills, or just being her loving, adorable self.

Since she joined our family, much of our free time revolves around her and her needs. We spend several days a week traveling to the local dog park so she can get in some “wrestling” with her friends, or just running free. This past weekend we took her to her first “swim” with other goldens. This event was sponsored by a local golden rescue group. Rosie was one of 150+ dogs who were having the time of their lives fetching balls and sticks and jumping in and out of the lake. Rosie swam for two hours non-stop, and we watched her the whole time, loving every minute of it. The whole time I was right there with her, in the moment just soaking up the happiness I could see on my dog’s face. I don’t know who had more fun, me or her.

Without Rosie, I would probably spend more time than is healthy worrying about things I can’t change and fretting over things that might never happen. She has taught me to enjoy the now, to be present, to have fun again. I think I tend to take life a bit too seriously, and having fun has always seemed like a luxury I couldn’t afford to have if “everything was going to get done.”

Now I can see how having fun is so vital to my well-being, and I so look forward to every outing with Rosie. She has taught me so much already in her six short months of life.